Thursday, March 20, 2008

MONAHAN IS THE WRITER OF THE MOMENT

Screenwriter William Monahan (THE DEPARTED, KINGDOM OF HEAVEN), probably known as "Bill" amongst his close friends, has a new kick-ass project lined up.

Per Variety:

"William Monahan will pen a fact-based thriller for Paramount based on an article that will appear in Playboy later this year. It's the story of a drug dealer who traded a prison sentence to go undercover at a maximum security hospital for the criminally insane, where he tried to get a serial killer to divulge the whereabouts of his victims. Graham King will produce with Alexandra Milchan, and the Par project kicks off a first-look deal that King's GK Films has made with Monahan, who will take an office in King's new Santa Monica HQ. Joel Gotler will be exec producer. "We really connected on 'The Departed,' and it'll be fantastic to have a writer of Bill's caliber in the office every day, not just to write, but to bounce ideas off," King said. "When I told Bill this incredible story I'd bought, he said, 'I've already got the movie in my head.'" Monahan followed "The Departed" by scripting the Ridley Scott-directed Warner Brothers thriller "Body of Lies," starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe. He just wrote the thriller "Nothing in the World" and recently signed to adapt the remake of hit Korean film "The Chaser" for WB."